Scattergood Baines eBook

“The way you h’isted ’em to fifty
thousand was what got my eye,” he said, proudly.
“I wouldn’t ‘a’ had the nerve.”

“I knew they’d pay it,” she said.
“Seems like a reasonable profit, though the
land’s been a-layin’ there unproductive
for thirty year. Father, he give a thousand dollars
for it, and the taxes must ‘a’ been a
couple of thousand more. Say forty-seven thousand
dollars profit....”

“And I come out of the other deals perty fair.
Made twenty-three thousand off of the options, and
nine or ten off of the other things. Guess the
Baines family’s a matter of seventy-five thousand
dollars richer by a good day’s work.”

“But it can’t lay idle,” she said.

“Not a minnit. We’ll buy that sixty
thousand acres ’way back up the river for sixty-six
cents, like we planned, and have some workin’
capital.... And, Mandy, Crane and Keith hain’t
got that timber for keeps. It’s comin’
back to us some of these days. I feel it in my
bones....”

“Kind of a nice wind-up for our honeymoon,”
said Mrs. Baines, practically.

CHAPTER III

THE MOUNTAIN COMES TO SCATTERGOOD

Scattergood Baines was on his way to the city!
An exclamation point deserves to be placed after this
because it rightly belongs in a class with the statement
that the mountain was coming to Mohammed. Scattergood
had fully as much in common with cities as eels with
the Desert of Sahara.

He had not started the journey brashly, on impulse,
but after debate and discussion with Mandy, his wife.
Mandy’s conclusion was that if Scattergood had
to go to the city he might as well get at it and have
it over, exercising the care of an exceedingly prudent
man in the circumstances, and following minutely advice
that would be forthcoming from her. Undoubtedly,
she thought, he could manage the matter and return
to Coldriver unscathed.

So Scattergood was clambering into the stage—­his
stage that plied between Coldriver village and the
railroad, twenty-four miles distant. When he
settled in his seat the stage sagged noticeably on
that side, for Scattergood added to his weight yearly
as he added to his other possessions. Mandy stood
by, watching anxiously.

“Remember,” said she, “I pinned
your money in the right leg of your pants, clost to
the knee.”

“Mandy,” said he, confidentially, “I
feel the lump of it. I hope I don’t have
to git after it sudden. Dunno but I should have
fetched along a ferret to send up after it.”

“Don’t git friendly with no strangers—­dressed-up
ones, especial. And never set down your valise.
There’s a white shirt and a collar and two pairs
of sox, and what not, in there. Make quite an
object for some sharper.”

He nodded solemnly.

“If you git invited out to his house,”
she said, “it’ll save you a dollar hotel
bill, anyhow, and be a heap sight safer.”